Weddings, Receptions, and Murder

by Stacey Alabaster

  Aaron nodded unsteadily. “I’m sure Hannah will understand,” he eventually said with a wide smile. “I just want to make her happy, you see.” He looked a little hot and sweaty. “I’ve been up since the crack of dawn already, running around, trying to get all the finishing touches wrapped up.”

  I smiled at him. “It’ll all work out all right in the end. As long as you are marrying the right person, that is all that really matters.”

  He nodded toward the large rolls of lace and white ribbon. “I might as well pick up a few more of the items on my list while I’m here,” he said. “And I’ll give you my number so you can call me as soon as the Mason jars come in.”

  “I’ll help you,” I said with a beaming smile. “I’ve had a very trying morning, so I empathize.”

  Eventually, Aaron was shown out the door holding a very large roll of lace and with a promise that we would call him the second the Mason jars came in.

  “I didn’t think you were very big on weddings,” Brenda said in surprise when Aaron had gone.

  “Yes, well. At least it was a distraction…” I murmured, sighing as I leaned against the counter. “You won’t believe the day I have had, Brenda.”

  But it wasn’t over yet.

  A little after four, right when I was returning with a to-go coffee in my hands, I was greeted by a frazzled looking woman wearing a business suit, with strawberry blonde hair. I seemed to be attracting upset women that morning.

  “I’m Hannah,” she said, extending her hand, her purse slipping from her shoulder to her wrist. “You met my fiancé earlier?”

  “Aaron,” I said, nodding, trying to put her at ease. “Yes. He really wants to make sure you’re going to be happy. He was gripping his long list in his hands, checking off the items as he went.”

  She laughed a little, finally relaxing a bit as we stepped in through the doors. “He tries his best, bless him. Honestly, most grooms wouldn’t even show the care and attention that he has, so I can’t complain.”

  She explained that she worked as a lawyer and commuted to the city four days a week, so Aaron was picking up the brunt of the organizing while she worked long hours. She had come back early on that day, however, nervous that the wedding was falling behind schedule. She’d wanted to drop by, just to double check that Aaron had taken care of everything. She was particularly anxious that the Mason jars would arrive on time, given that the wedding was only one week away.

  “Maybe D.I.Y wasn’t such a good idea,” she commented. “But I read about this couple’s wedding in a magazine. It was a ten-page spread, and the glossy pages just won me over, I guess. The wedding just looked so sweet. With all this vintage lace everywhere and these beautiful rustic looking flower arrangements. Fairy lights everywhere. And, well, I just couldn’t resist. It all looked so lovely. And I loved the idea of the personal touch. But now it’s all gotten a bit overwhelming, I’m afraid.”

  From the sound in her voice, I had a bad feeling I knew what she was about to say. She took a deep breath, leaned over the counter, and said, “I think we should cancel all the items we ordered. There just isn’t enough time. Will that be all right?”

  I nodded. “Of course. They haven’t been shipped or paid for yet. It won’t be a problem.”

  Hannah looked a little nervous. “What about the items we have paid for?” she asked, making a face. “Would we be able to get a refund on them?”

  I paused and then nodded. “As long as they haven’t been broken or anything.”

  She shook her head and thanked me as she pulled her credit card out, but she didn’t seem that happy.

  She glanced around the store. “There are so many beautiful items here,” she said. “It’s a shame that we can’t go ahead with the original plan,” she said wistfully.

  It did seem a terrible shame. Especially if she’d had her heart set on it.

  “Look,” I said. “I don’t mind refunding the items. Not at all. But why don’t you consider another option? I could help you.” I shrugged. “I am a pretty skilled crafter, after all.”

  Hanna looked at me in surprise. “Oh, would you really?” she asked.

  “It will be my pleasure,” I said, with a wide grin. Suddenly, the day seemed to be getting a little brighter.

  “And how are you going to have time for all that?” Brenda asked, when Hannah had traipsed out, looking a lot sunnier herself. “What with the store, and your craft circle, and…”

  “And the dead body in my trunk,” I commented wryly.

  “Excuse me?” Brenda asked, her jaw dropping open.

  “Oh, I found a dead body in the trunk of my new car this morning. That’s why I never made it to the beach this morning. Well, it’s closing time! Good night, Brenda!”

  Chapter 5

  Bright sunlight hit my eyes when I woke up, and I panicked. A quick glance out the window told me that it was not early morning. Certainly not 5:00 a.m., anyway.

  I groaned and rolled over, seeing that I had slept right through my alarm. The alarm that I had set for 5:00 a.m. so that I could get in some wedding preparation before I started work at the store.

  “It would really help if I had a car,” I grumbled, pushing my feet into my slippers. “Really helpful.”

  Jasper was not much help that morning either. He would not let me leave the house before I had taken him for a circle around the lake, ending up with me running even later. It was almost 10:30 a.m. by the time I finally arrived at the craft store. And as for wedding prep? You could forget about that.

  “Oh boy. I’ve just been so busy with this wedding planning…” I said, forging a little white lie when Brenda sarcastically asked whether I had forgotten to put the batteries in my alarm clock again. It plugged into the wall anyway. Because otherwise, I definitely would.

  Brenda didn’t look especially impressed. “Well, Melissa just dropped by. She wants to know if you will be attending the craft circle on Thursday night.” She looked up at me. “I told her maybe not, seeing as your car has been impounded by the police.”

  Yes, well, there was always the bus. I thought. I’d never actually checked out how often it ran. Did it even run at night?

  “Yes, I will get onto it,” I said. “I’ll call her back.” I fudged another lie, because I knew it was very unlikely I’d ever remember to do that.

  I tried to get to work after that, knowing that if Hannah and Aaron were going to clean us out, I’d better be extra organized before the next lot of deliveries. But I couldn’t quite concentrate so I was thankful when a familiar visitor dropped by.

  It was Adam, my ex-husband, still wearing the uniform that belonged to the supermarket in the middle of town--a green polo shirt with a large white pine tree over the left side of his chest. Bagging groceries at forty years of age. At least he had managed to hold down the job. That was something, I supposed. I tried not to be a snob about these kinds of things. Hey, we all had to make a living.

  It was just that, I supposed I sometimes wondered if it was all my fault that Adam dropped out of college all those years ago. We’d gotten married before he had a chance to graduate and getting married so young had changed his future plans, a lot.

  But the sight of his car sitting outside through the window, that interested me.

  “Wow. I can’t remember the last time you were so happy to see me,” Adam commented. I must have been beaming when he came inside.

  I glanced over my shoulder then whispered, “Can you give me a lift?”

  Adam shrugged. “Sure. I have a little bit before I have to get to work. So for now, I’m a free man.”

  “I’m going out, Brenda! Wedding stuff.”

  “What wedding stuff?” Adam asked when we were finally on the road, flying down the freeway. There was a note of worry in his voice, like he had been stewing on the question for fifteen minutes and only just worked up the courage to ask it.

  I shook my head and felt the wind in my hair. It was a beautiful day so we had the windows down. “Not mine, y
ou goose! It’s for a customer. Well, a client now, I suppose you can call them. I’m trying my hand at wedding planning.”

  “Oh, right. Yeah, I guessed as much.”

  I bit my tongue. He had definitely been jealous. But if he’d thought I’d secretly gotten engaged to Ryan in the last week, he had nothing to worry about.

  “So, tell me why you want to head back to the place that sold you a haunted car?” Adam asked as we headed toward the dealership.

  “Not haunted,” I replied lightly. “Just one with a dead body in the trunk. And that’s precisely why I want to go there, Adam—to find out just how, exactly, a dead body wound up there.”

  It wasn’t Bianca who greeted me at the dealership that day, but a small, mousy woman, in her late twenties or early thirties, who went by the name of Margaret. She had long brown hair that hung lanky over each shoulder and wore glasses the size of small saucers that swallowed her face.

  “Is Bianca here?” I asked, once I’d climbed out of the car and walked back in through the doors. I wasn’t surprised to find the whole place quiet and devoid of customers. I wasn’t sure if word had spread around town yet, not officially, anyway, but it wouldn’t have taken long for people to start whispering.

  She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, she’s taken a sick day.”

  Hmm.

  Understandable, I supposed. But also suspicious.

  “Can I help you?” Margaret asked timidly. She wasn’t really much of a saleswoman, if you asked me. I thought that car dealers had to have that killer shark instinct. I couldn’t imagine Margaret selling anyone a five-dollar umbrella on a rainy day, much less convincing them to drop tens of thousands on a new car.

  “I’m the woman who was sold the car with the dead body in the trunk,” I announced with a grim smile, watching as Margaret’s face grew steadily redder.

  She backed away from me and adjusted her glasses. “Oh, right. Oh, I’m terribly sorry, ma’am. Would you like me to phone Bianca for you?”

  I mused on this for a second. Hmm. It might actually be better if she wasn’t here for this.

  “Were you working yesterday morning, Margaret? When my car was delivered to me?”

  She nodded nervously. “Yes, ma’am, I was here.”

  “Right. And did you see Bianca at all, before she drove the car over to my house?”

  She hesitated a moment before nodding. “Yes, ma’am, I did.”

  Geez. Enough of the ‘ma’ams’ already.

  But at least I was getting somewhere. I had a witness to Bianca’s actions the previous morning. “Was Bianca here on time that morning?”

  She was very nervous. “I assume so. She usually gets here around six-thirty. I arrived at seven and she was already here…” She trailed off, looking guilty.

  “So, you saw that Bianca did all the proper checks of the car? Of my car?”

  Margaret was staring at the ground.

  “Bianca was in a bit of a rush yesterday morning. She was acting a bit…rash, I suppose you could say. Rushing to get out of here. When she saw me, she ignored me. Avoided me.”

  I blinked a few times and thought about this. What was she trying to tell me but not quite able to spit out?

  “Right. So she didn’t check the car then?”

  Margaret shook her head. “No, ma’am.”

  I glanced over at Adam. I was hoping he’d be listening in so he could be of some help, but he was wandering around the dealership admiring the brand new four-wheelers on the far side of the room.

  “Maybe I should think about upgrading my car,” he commented when I joined him.

  “On your money as a checkout boy?” I saw the look on his face. “Sorry, I’m being snippy. I shouldn’t take it out on you. I just can’t believe this place!” I said, throwing my hands up into the air. “They delivered me a car with a dead body in the trunk.”

  I filled him in on what Margaret had told me--about Bianca’s negligence and the lie she had fed me.

  “So you think the body was already in the trunk when Bianca left the dealership?”

  I shook my head. “Who knows,” I said softly, glancing around. “But I know that Bianca is lying to me.”

  I had to wait while Adam made a futile attempt to inquire about the prices of the four-wheelers. I couldn’t quite bear to listen to the conversation so I crept outside and took a wander around the perimeter of the dealership, kicking at the concrete while I felt the sun beating down on me.

  I looked up with a start when I rounded a corner and spotted an employee siting on a little bench, nibbling at her sandwich. She looked like a frightened rabbit when she spotted me. Margaret.

  I walked over and sat next to her while she shifted nervously.

  “Bianca must be very upset. She told me that she and Cain were very close,” I said, crossing my legs and leaning back in the sun.

  Again, Margaret looked away furtively and chewed on her sandwich. She seemed to have trouble swallowing.

  I leaned a little closer to her. “They weren’t close?” It was like getting blood out of a stone with this one. She wasn’t exactly chatty, or forward with the conversation, but I kept hoping if I prompted her enough, she would finally let something slip.

  “Well, they were at one stage…” Margaret said. “But recently, they had been fighting a lot…”

  Adam suddenly came around the corner, interrupting us. “Way out of my price range,” he stated. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Margaret gratefully scurried off before I had a chance to say another word to her.

  “I think you should let it go,” Adam said as we walked back to the old banged up car that now looked even older.

  “Let go of the fact that there was a dead body found in the trunk of my car?” I asked, appalled that he would ask such a thing of me.

  “No, not entirely,” Adam replied. “I mean, let go of that fact that Bianca had anything to do with it.”

  I calmed down a little, but there was still a little bit of a sting in my tail. “Hmm, didn’t realize that you were now a detective as well as a checkout boy,” I said. I kept my tone teasing, though. I was trying to lighten the mood, make him forgive me for my earlier remark as we walked.

  “I might not be as well versed in it as you are, but I have helped you out before, remember?” Adam said. Well, ‘helped’ was probably making too much of it. He tagged along once while I was investigating the murder of a local shopkeeper. He had spent most of the time concealing things from me, though. I guessed he had a short memory.

  “And I think I can see an obvious flaw in this theory you’re cooking up,” Adam said as we reached the car.

  “Oh? Can you?”

  He stopped. “Yes. If Bianca killed Cain and stuffed his body in your trunk, why on earth would she drive the car straight to your place and leave it there!?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Good point. I still haven’t figured that part out.” I winked at him and jumped into the car. “But that doesn’t mean that I won’t!”

  “You don’t have to drive me home. I’ll walk home from the supermarket,” I said, climbing into the rusty car. Maybe getting an upgrade wasn’t such a bad idea, I thought, when I saw the way that he had trouble starting the engine, hearing the way it spluttered and gurgled. A ridiculous idea, maybe, but not a bad one.

  We pulled out onto the freeway.

  “I know you think you’re making a valid point, Adam, but Bianca told me she didn’t make a stop on the way home,” I commented as we pulled into the parking lot of the supermarket. “So how did the body get into the trunk unless she put it there herself?”

  Adam climbed out of the car, jumping to the ground. I wasn’t finished speaking so I followed him through the automatic doors to where he punched in for his shift and waved to the manager, who shot him a friendly smile back. Looked like he was really making a home for himself in this place.

  “I mean, if she had made a stop, surely she would be more than willing to admit to it,” I said. “I
t would make her look far less guilty if she had stopped the car somewhere.”

  I leaned against one of the empty checkouts, lost in my thoughts. Adam, pulling on his apron, laughed and brought back my attention. “So, did you just follow me in here to talk or did you actually need something from here?” Hmm. I really did need to pick up some dog food, actually, but I had no way of carrying it back with me without a car. Believe me, Jasper went through a ton of it a day just on his own.

  Hmmm. Maybe I could ask Adam to drop it off later…

  “I had an ulterior motive for wanting you to drop by tonight,” I commented as Adam walked through the door with the dog food and the bags of Italian takeout. My stomach did a happy dance at the smell of herbs and garlic.

  He looked a little hopeful as he placed the bags down on my kitchen bench. “Oh?” he asked, fetching us plates from the cupboard.

  I spun around. “Yes,” I said, arching an eyebrow. “I hadn’t finished running my theory past you earlier.” I popped open the wine. “Turns out you’re a better ear for this than I originally gave you credit for.”

  He looked slightly disappointed. “Oh, right.”

  I started to dig into my Bolognese with extra garlic bread. It was delicious.

  “So after we’ve finished eating, why don’t we take another drive? We can take Jasper with us?” I suggested.

  Adam grinned at me from the other side of the table.

  “You know I’m always more than happy to go on a late night drive with you, George.”

  This time, Jasper happily jumped in the backseat. “At least I know you aren’t hiding a dead body anywhere,” I commented, pulling my seatbelt on. “Or, at least, I’m fairly certain you’re not,” I added quietly, trying to swallow down an old memory.

  “So where are we going?” Adam asked, pulling out of the driveway.

  “We’re going to take the same route that Bianca took. We’ll start at the dealership and then drive back to my place.”

  “But how do you know which route Bianca took, precisely?” Adam asked. I could tell he thought it was a good question, but I found it a bit basic. I’d already figured it out.